landscape

Definition

A portion of land or territory as defined by its landform, its geographical (and architectural) features.

Etymology

From an alteration (due to Dutch landschap) of earlier landskip, lantschip, from Middle English *landschippe, *landschapp, from Old English landsċipe, landsċeap (“region, district, tract of land”); in some senses from Dutch landschap (“region, district, province, landscape”), from Middle Dutch landscap, lantscap (“region”), from Old Dutch *landskepi, *landskapi (“region”). Cognate with Scots landskape, landskep, landskip (“landscape”), West Frisian lânskip (“landscape”), Low German landschop (“landscape, district”), German Landschaft (“landscape, countryside, scenery”), Danish landskab (“landscape, countryside”), Swedish landskap (“landscape, scenery, province”), Icelandic landskapur (“countryside”). By surface analysis, land + -ship.

Example Sentences

• "Piſcat[or]. [...] [T]heſe Hills though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed good Beef, and Mutton above ground, and afford good ſtore of Lead within. / Viat[or]. They had need of all thoſe commodities to make amends for the ill Land-ſchape: [...]"
• "Ahead the flanks of the Pennines gleamed faintly in the moonlight, looking as though they themselves were part of some dry and deserted lunar landscape."
• "Its steel helped build America, from the skyscrapers dotting city landscapes to the cars speeding down highways, to the appliances inside millions of homes."